The New York Yankees' Jacoby Ellsbury celebrates after his solo home run against the Chicago White Sox in the 10th inning at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago on Saturday, May 24, 2014. The Yankees won, 4-3, in 10 innings. (Nuccio DiNuzzo/Chicago Tribune/MCT)

The pair entered Saturday mired in deep slumps but emerged as key contributors to a 4-3 victory over the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field.

Ellsbury clubbed a go-ahead, 10th-inning homer to give the final lead to the Yankees, who were in a position to win the game because of McCann's game-tying RBI single in the ninth.

Ellsbury (seven years, $153 million) and McCann (five years, $85 million) each accepted huge deals and huge amounts of responsibility when they put on pinstripes this winter.

But neither has delivered on their promise as of late.

Through April, Ellsbury was hitting everything, his batting average hitting a high of .403 in early May. It's since dropped to .263.

McCann, conversely, just hasn't gotten it going all year. His batting average is sitting at .227.

But, Girardi said, he hasn't considered tinkering with their playing time or lineup positions yet. The 2014 sample size is too small, he said after Saturday's win.

"You can't judge a player on 45 games, 50 games," he said. "You just can't."

But he gets fans' frustrations with the two.

"And I understand," he said. "Fans want us to win. I get that. But I don't make too much of it. Brian McCann has hit the ball hard. Jacoby Ellsbury, the first month, people thought he was going to be the MVP of the league. That's how good he was."

Still, considering their recent slides — Ellsbury started Saturday with five hits in his last 46 at-bats before going 2-for-5 — it might have been difficult for Girardi envisioning them bolstering a two-out, three-run rally in the ninth to erase an dominant outing from White Sox pitcher John Danks, who twirled eight scoreless frames.

But Ellsbury sparked the push. His one-out single gave way to Alfonso Soriano's two-out ground-rule double that brought home Ellsbury, making it 3-1. A Yangervis Solarte single followed, and Soriano scored, cutting the White Sox's lead to a run. And after Ichiro Suzuki walked, McCann got jammed, but hit it hard enough to make it fall in for a hit, scoring Kelly Johnson, who pinch running for Solarte.

That enabled the game to go into extras, where Ellsbury rocked a 1-0 sinker that floated high to right.

"I knew I hit it high," Ellsbury said of the homer. "I thought I might have it a little too high. But great feeling once it went out."

It was a great feeling for Girardi, too, the manager said. The additions McCann and Ellsbury made to the win, breaking the Yankees' two-game slide, validated his wait-and-see approach.

"There are good days, there are bad days," Girardi said. "And you just got to kind of ride it out and know that at the end of the year, these guys are going to have good years."